(WIP) Silvermoon City

[RavaTroll]

Hello !

Some months ago I was working on making a good looking Silvermoon in warcraft with no WoW imports, and I managed to have something quite good looking. Sadly I gave up because I had no good looking tree that would fit the look.

Last week, I found that Blood Oak Tree Texture - that is frankly really good looking, and decided to continue my project because I finally found what I was missing.

So here's what it looks like for now :

I've used some of the ideas of the Quel'thalas Template posted here on hive and they worked very well, thanks Forsaken for this awesome template map.

Anyway I'm working on it very slowly, and I doubt I'll make something outside of the city but eh, maybe. The idea would be to make it entirely playable, so I'm keeping a simple warcraft III look.

I hope you enjoy these few screenshots, because I'm terrible at making good looking shots

 

[DrTema]

looks beatiful

 

[Celaquil]

Very vibrant and colourful, just like the WoW version.

And I'll give you this: You did an impressive job mimicking the WoW version without any imports from WoW.

That said, I find myself questioning if going for the WoW look is the best option here. It rarely is.

When I said it was vibrant and colourful, I didn't necessarily mean that in a good way, in my eyes it's a bit
too vibrant and colourful. And it lacks an artistic touch. When making something from somewhere else, I
always think it's best to either make your own version, or make a "better" version. Here "better" in my
opinion would be "less colourful, more realistic looking and maybe a bit more fantastic."

I found two pieces of concept art that might serve as good sources of inspiration toward what I mean:

Here and here.

Otherwise, though I hesitate to point to my own work as examples, I will point out one of mine and one
I did with fladdermasken as examples of how you can make something elven looking, even blood elven,
without it having to be exactly like WoW. Here and here

- Most doodads used in those two terrains can be found in this and this thread.

Don't hesitate to do detailed terrain work even for a playable map, just make sure that those parts are
located where the player can't go

But yeah, if you don't want to remodel it completely, then at the very least consider toning down the
colouring contrasts, use flora that complement the colouring of one-another, not that contrast, and use
the RGB settings to tone down the most outstanding red and white colours, not much, but a little.

Maybe also use a darker fog, bright fogs rarely become any terrains.

 

[RavaTroll]

Thanks for the advices !

I kinda like the contrast right now, but i'm really not really satisfied with how flat everything is, and how it looks too much like WoW as you said.
I like Silvermoon in Warcraft III too, because it's really green and full of life, so I think i'll work on making some kind of mix between both WoW and WarIII versions.
The idea right now is to add much more vegetation/trees, and using height to make the city look a bit more fantastic indeed. I also consider using some night-elf stuff retextured to make the city look more "elvish".
I'm still not planning on using the Elves houses models from WarIII ( and any model that alter them / looks like them ) because I feel they don't look blood-elvish enough.

I'm a bit worried about the number of doodads i'll use but the city is pretty small on the minimap so this should be ok.

I've looked into the more detailed doodads from Hybris factory and I don't think i'm really into making the buildings "brick by brick". I like keeping the number of doodads I use quite low.

As for the color, i'll probably end up screenshoting in at night because I like making cities at night - because dynamic lighting is awesome !

I agree that it lacks an artistic touch, mostly because i'm not trying to be really "artistic" about it, my goal was to create a WoW-look-a-like map that would render well in Warcraft III.
But now I agree that it might be just boring.

I also remember that High Elves, both in Warcraft II and Warcraft III, seemed much closer to nature than in WoW, and I think it's a good start to find how I can make the city a bit more interesting.

I'll post updates when i'll have some new stuff to show, but I think what you saw in my first post is going to change anyway.

 

[Doomcore]

It is so amusing and enlightening to view such beautiful and artistic terrains like this. Ya know it's stress relieving to yourself and those who see it when you have finally made your art aye?

 

[Sanskrt]

Can you send me this beautifull in inbox, of course if you have like map ? I just adorable everthing about Silvermoon. Thank you in advance for respond.

 

[nightelfbuilder]

Where can I find the skin for those red tiles?

 

[RavaTroll]

Hey !

I've been working a little on it but it's really far from done. I'll continue during the year to come as I find more motivation to do so.
In the mean time here are the tiles :

http://file.ravatroll.com/Bloodelf_SquareTiles.blp
http://file.ravatroll.com/Bloodelf_Cliff2.blp
http://file.ravatroll.com/Bloodelf_RoundTiles.blp

They are really simple edits so I don't think they're worth submiting to the hive.

I may post the map if I don't feel to continue.
I'm glad you guys like what i've done so far.

 

[Gilles]

You should upload them to the post so we can see them without downloading anything.

 

[RavaTroll]

Done - sorry i'm not used to forums with attached files

 

[sniper_zero]

This is so amazing! I love everything to do with Warcraft's elves. Can you send me the link for the doodads and buildings?

 

[RanCatu1020]

Hey RavaTroll! Your work is AMAAAZING!!! <3
Have you tried adding these blood elf buildings to your template?
Missing Blood Elf Buildings from pack.

 

[RavaTroll]

Hey ! Thanks !

Just a quick update : I started this map all over again a month before 1.29 was announced, but ran into a few problems with my JNGP world editor so now I'm waiting for the next sharpcraft WEX update to continue working on it. I also did some small model edits to classic warcraft 3 doodads and I might post them here - nothing really interesting, just some vertex re-positioning. I still plan to work on this, I just take my time

I'll post screenshots some day to show you the new stuff, but I do believe it looks much better now - and much less flat !

The buildings were all found here on hiveworkshop. There might be a model or two from other forums.
And I already got all the blood elves buildings thanks !

 

[Napoqe]

I see the screenshots, I see very good work done. Congratulations.

Depending on the future this terrain may contribute to a project of make World of Warcraft in Warcraft 3 World Editor.